Iranian Handicrafts Fly Off the Shelf

TEHRAN -- An Iranian official says exports of handicrafts have reached $300 million.
The main destinations for the exports are the Persian Gulf littoral states and Iraq, said Muhammad-Hussein Askarpour, a senior official from Iran’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts.

He made the announcement during a visit to a handicrafts exhibition in Torbat-e Heydariyeh, a city in the northeastern Iranian province of Razavi Khorasan.
Askarpour also said about 520,000 Iranian artists are currently active in 299 fields of handicrafts in the country. He said the government is planning to increase this number in the future by offering more support to the sector.

Iranian handicrafts, including handwoven Persian carpets, are well-known and popular across the world.

The sector boasts more than 2.5 million people of which some 1.5 million are registered in government data bases and around 0.5 million are licensed workers.